Tommaso Ciampa Says NXT Performance Was Nothing Compared to What’s Coming in AEW

Tommaso Ciampa wants the world to forget everything they thought they knew about his prime. According to him, that version of Ciampa is dead—and what’s coming next in AEW will “shock the world.”

During a conversation with Sports Illustrated interview with Rick Ucchino, Ciampa didn’t hold back when addressing fans who still associate his 2018 NXT run with the peak of his career.

“For a long time, I had to listen to people tell me, not so much directly to my face but more so online, that 2018 was prime Ciampa,” he said. “I'm a hundred times better now than I was then. That was nothing. That was absolutely nothing.”

Now officially signed with AEW, Ciampa made it clear that this next chapter will redefine how fans see him—not just as a performer, but as a storyteller and force inside the ring.

“I'm physically better. I'm mentally sharper. My storytelling, my psychology is on a whole different level than it was back then… what people are about to see is going to blow their minds. It's gonna shock the world, because I finally have a shot to find out if I'm as good as I think I am.”

This comes a day after Ciampa made his AEW debut on Dynamite and was confirmed as “All Elite” by Tony Khan. He’s set to challenge Mark Briscoe for the TNT Championship on Collision, but the Psycho Killer clearly has his sights set far beyond one match—he’s aiming to rewrite the entire narrative.